By Charles.S.Perera

Sri Lanka which was a Sinhala Buddhist Country from three centuries before the present era which later accepted and accommodated Tamil, Muslim and other Communities is today  facing disintegration  as a united country with a nation of mixed communities.

Instead of making an effort to unite the three main communities into one nation of Sri Lankans the country today under a pseudo Yahapalanaya, is facing disappearance as a United country with one nation  under a separatist shadow cast by the Tamil Community, supported by the West, and  giving into  separatism through reconciliation, by a yahapalanaya government with ambivalent, uncertain national and cultural interest.

A nation in the world has an  identity, with its own culture and a belief system, having  an original people who would accommodate other communities, without loosing its original identity and remain  recognised by its original identity, with a language of its own and a religion and a culture based on that religion.

It may  accept and respect the religion and the culture of the  resident minorities, without loosing its original identity despite the mixture of its population with the minorities. It is not bound to sacrifice its original identity in accepting any minority to live within its boundaries.

Sri Lanka was such a nation until it was colonised, and then became a Dominion of the British Commonwealth with  constitutions written by the British. In 1956,  S.W.R.D Bandaranayake  wanted to make Sri Lanka an Independent Nation like any other Nation in the world making the Sinhala-  the language of its original people  the official language, a National Anthem sung in that language, and hoisting the original flag of the Sinhala people  in place of the British Union Jack.

However the Tamil community despite its minority status being  13 percent of the population clamoured for equality with the majority Sinhala the original people of the country. Despite that unjust, incongruous demand of the Tamils,  successive governments maintained the unity of the Communities in the country.

When Sri Lanka’s unitary status was under serious threat with a thirty year long terrorism, it was stopped in May,2009 by the elimination of terrorism by the  Armed Forces of the Government under the political leadership of   President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Due to unceasing demands of the Tamils for separation the President Mahinda Rajapakse declared  Sri Lanka free of Majority-Minority division is a nation of  Sri Lankans. What should a people want more, but the Tamils being a people who can never be satisfied will continue asking for the sun and the moon” as they have the West to support them.

Then by a false calculation or sheer bad karma, Mahinda Rajapakse was defeated at the  January 2015 Presidential election, and the trusted Secretary General of  the SLFP  Maithripala Sirisena betrayed the  trust bestowed upon him as the General Secretary of the SLFP, stole his way to the opposition to become the President.

Maithripala Sirisena  did not only betray his political party,  but he also departed from his rightful place in the SLFP with a heart burning with hatred towards the President of SLFP the President Mahinda Rajapakse.

A man whose mind is full of hatred can neither be a friend to himself,  nor to others around him.  Therefore when Maithripala Sirisena became the President his mind was not freed from his  hatred, but it became many fold, and his heart full of hatred , desire for vengeance has no place for love, and compassion to give to the people of Sri Lanka as a whole, or love his country, his culture, and his religion, as a true patriotic President of Sri Lanka.

The hatred  and anger in his heart is  so much so,  that overjoyed by  being the President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena  swore in  Ranil Wickramasinghe( the leader of UNP the Party against which he worked as the General Secretary of the SLFP for over 14 years and as a member of the SLFP for 47 years), as the Prime Minister,  while there was still a Prime Minister whose government President Sirisena forgot to dissolve before swearing in Ranil Wickramasinghe as his  Prime Minister.

Maithripala Sirisena began his carrier as the President of Sri Lanka, manifesting his anger, hatred and desire for vengeance against the former President Mahinda Rajapakse. Since then Sri Lanka had been continuously degenerating in all its aspects social, administration, financial, cultural and communal unity.

For the first time since its independence the President Mahinda Rajapakse was able to bring not only peace and security to the country, but also  a fantastic development process which raised the standard of living of the people and maintained a unity of the Communities, despite the political leaders of the Tamil and Muslim Communities creating dissention in an otherwise settle atmosphere of unity , peace, and security.

Maithripala Sirisena despite his political beginning with socialism and then with the  SLFP, and also having a  Sinhala Buddhist village background, lost his Buddhist cultural values such as gratitude, generosity, readiness to pardon the mistakes of others, and the common touch despite moving with the high and the powerful.

These are the Sinhala Buddhist qualities with which the former President Mahinda Rajapakse was well equipped and therefore won the hearts of every one he came in contact with, except of course with  those who were either jealous of him or disregarded him for his village background, and  is Sinhala attire.

The Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe as everyone knows is a pretended Sinhala Buddhist, not brought up in a Buddhist environment. He adopted a Buddhist attitude for political purpose. Therefore he is ready to sacrifice Sinhala Buddhist values for the sake of  his political popularity.

Ranil Wickramasinghe is prepared to even write a new Constitution projecting Sri Lanka as  a multi-faith society, not giving special recognition and protection to Buddhism, allowing the National Anthem to be sung in any language, degrading the Buddhist priests manifesting against his government’s  actions which go against historical, religious or cultural values of Sri Lanka.

The President Maithripala Sirisena could have changed Ranil Wickramsinghe’s excesses which are detrimental to the Sinhala Buddhist cultural background, which is the hallmark , the uniqueness of Sri Lanka.

But unfortunately as mentioned above the President Maithripala Sirisena’s Buddhist values  have been defiled through  anger, jealousy, hatred and desire for vengeance. Therefore he cannot change the mental attitude of his Prime Minister and some of  his Ministers to keep within the characteristics of the Sri Lankan culture             and its uniqueness.

If both Maithripala Sirisena the President, and Ranil Wickramasinghe the Prime Minister had maintained undefiled mental attitudes when they took over the Government in January,2015, Sri Lanka would have been different from what it is today.

Why and How could it have been different  ?

Because, instead of the 100day programme the opposition”  prepared to undo what the former President Mahinda Rajapakse had been doing after the elimination of terrorism, if the the Sirisena –Ranil Government were to have continued with  the programme of the former President Mahinda Rajapakse, situation today could have been different.  

Maithripala Sirisena as the President should not have allowed the appointment of Ravi Karunanayake as the Minister of Finance,  and Mangala Samaraweera as the Minister of Foreign Affaires. He should have kept those two ministries within the SLFP faction of the Government. The President Sirisena should not have allowed  Ranil to set up the FCID.

The Sirisena-Ranil Government should not have made accusations against   Mahinda Rajapakse, his family and his supporters  its priority objective. It was done with a bad motive  and all the activities it followed  thereafter were as a result bound to fail.  Sirisena- Ranil Government should not have given into the West and India putting all their cards on their  support  for the success  of the Sirisena- Ranil a unity Government.

If it would have been so , the Colombo Port City would not have been stopped and the relations with China would not have been negatively affected. Infrastructure work would have been carried out.

The Sirisena –Ranil government should not have given the leadership of the opposition to the TNA.  Relations with the former President should have been maintained consulting him on necessary matters.

The President Maithripala Sirisena would have been a successful President,  if he had set up an advisory council  without Chandrika Kumaratunga, but with Mahinda Rajapakse. He should have removed the  13^th Amendment and prepared a new system of provincial government, with the Central Government keeping  a strong hold on the Provincial Government System.  No attempt should have been made to write a new Constitution. The 19^th Amendment should have been amended to allow the dissolution of the Parliament if necessary before the end of its term of five years.

If Maithripala Sirisena as the President  had taken such matters things would have been different today. This would have avoided  the present threat to the government with the NPC becoming completely uncontrollable preparing the background to something similar to the thirty years of terrorism Sri Lanka so miserably went  through.

After being elected  President,  Maithripala Sirisena’s mind  became  saturated with defilements of anger, hatred, and desire for vengeance,  therefore he is unable  do what is right by the people.

President Maithripala Sirisena’s only way out is to rid himself of this hatred towards the former President Mahinda Rajapakse and start working with him for the betterment of the country and its people.